US company fires 200 Muslim employees over prayer dispute

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Nearly 200 Muslim employees have been fired from a meat-packing plant in the United States after they downed tools following a disagreement over praying at work.

The workers, mostly Somalian immigrants, staged a walkout in objection to what they said was inadequate accommodation of prayer time at Cargill Meat Solutions in Fort Morgan, Colorado.

Although the company provided a “reflection room” for Muslim employees to pray since 2009, the workers claim the policy has been changed, according to The Telegraph.

“All of these employees are good employees and don’t have any other issues. They feel missing their prayer is worse than losing their job. It’s like losing a blessing from God,” Jaylani Hussein, a council spokesperson said.

Further, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) claimed the workers had been treated with prejudice and told, “If you want to pray, go home”.

However, the company, Cargill Meat Solutions said there has been a ‘misunderstanding’ and its policy of allowing time for prayer has not changed.

Moreover, plant managers from the company met with workers, members of the Somali community, and union leaders after the walk-out but failed to resolve the issue, according to a spokesperson for the company. He said workers were advised that not turning up for work three days in a row would put them at risk of losing their jobs.  However, after 200 of them didn’t turn up they were terminated.

“Cargill makes every reasonable attempt to provide religious accommodations to all employees based on our ability to do so without disruption to our beef-processing business,” the spokesperson added.

“At no time did Cargill prevent people from prayer at Fort Morgan. Nor have we changed policies related to religious accommodation and attendance. This has been mischaracterised.”

Speaking to Denver Post the spokesperson said, “It’s an unfortunate situation that may be based somewhere in a misunderstanding. There has been a desire among some employees to go in larger groups of people to pray.

“We just can’t accommodate that. It backs up the flow of all the production. We have to ensure food safety. We have to ensure the products we produce meet consumer expectations.”

2 COMMENTS

  1. Cargill will probably cave in and re-hire these people. The Somalis want to abandon a production line en masse and go to pray, forcing the company to either shut down the production line or the other employees to work double-time to compensate.

    These Muslims do not care that they are treating their employer and co-workers unjustly and potentially creating safety hazards that could harm others. It is very sad and will reflect badly on Muslims in America, at just the time they do not need bad publicity. It will make it harder for all Muslims to get jobs, because employers do not want to deal with the financial and legal ramifications of a religious group that does not care about the needs of anyone but themselves.

  2. Every one of those employees should have been fired. The scriptures state this:

    Matthew 6:6 (KJV) But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

    Why would our Christian God, the God of Israel, instruct us to pray privately when we come to God to communicate with him. Because "I thy God am a Jealous God." He doesn't want you making a show for others, to have you use him to gain attention, to be seen, but rather our Christian God, the God of Israel, wants you to rely upon Him as your Father, and not by hoping to impress others.

    The Muslim God Allah is in no way the same God as the Christian God. When the Christian God states, "Thou shall have no other Gods the me.", our Christian God is actually admitting that there are "other Gods", lesser gods, or in this case pretenders to being God, The followers of the Muslim God are in fact instructed to pronounce "Allahu Akbar", meaning "God [their Allah] is the greater" or "God [our Islamic God] is greatest. Having studied the Koran and Hadith for 40 years as the well as the Bible, I can assure you that Muslim god Allah is indeed a liar, the father of all lies, and in fact Satan the devil who has convince a third of humanity now to follow him by his (Satin’s) deceptions just as a third of the Angels were foolishly deceived into to following Satin in their unsuccessful first rebellion against the Christian God, the creator of all universe. The reason why the false God Allah has his followers pray in public is because He wants to show off, and intimidate others by their killing false righteousness, Whereas the Christian God of Israel, comes to believers humbly, " I stand at the door and knock", the violent and intimidating false God Allah "uses" – because Satan is a user – to force His phony religion down your throats whether you like it or not.

    The Christian scriptures tell us exactly what is going on. (Ephesians 6:12) "We war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities [Satan is a Prince], against powers [Satan is that power], against the rulers of the darkness of this world [which you know is the Devil].

    The question becomes, should employers be forced to help promote this warfare on company time? Never! This is not freedom of religion, but rather "stealing". Our God states, "Thou shall not steal." God’s opponent Allah states, "Steal, intimidate, force Me upon everyone you come upon. If any resist, take out your sword and behead them." Do not kid yourself, this is warfare right in front of your eyes, and you are seeing it in America, not in the Middle East.

    Sincerely,
    Pastor Burt

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